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DBA CEO to speak at The Future Of… conference in Chicago in March
The DBA’s Chief Executive, Deborah Dawton will be joining CDOs and Design VPs from across the globe this March, speaking at a conference specifically curated around the challenges and opportunities driving design leadership.
Bringing her experience championing the tangible and measurable impact of design in business, Deborah will join speakers including Rapha Abreu, VP of Global Design at The Coca-Cola Company and Jennifer Kolstad, Global Design and Brand Director at Ford Motor Company on The Future Of… conference panel.
DBA members can benefit from a special discount to attend the conference taking place in Chicago on 12 and 13 March.
The Future Of… conference was created to inspire conversation and dialogue on the present path and trajectory of design. Where are we now? How did we get here? What might we learn with, and from others? What might we do together to reshape The Future Of… Design.
Speakers confirmed alongside the DBA’s Chief Executive, Deborah Dawton include PepsiCo’s Mauro Porcini, GE Healthcare’s Chuck Jones, 3M’s Brian Rice, Whirlpool’s Ken Musgrave, Newell’s Kris Malkoski, and current and former heads of Design from Verizon, Duracell, J.M. Smucker, Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, Burger King, McKinsey, BP, and more.
Brands and companies due to join the conference conversations include Frontier Airlines, Gallo, Georgia-Pacific, Haleon, Johnson & Johnson, W.K. Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, KraftHeinz, Mars, McDonalds, Microsoft, Mondelez, Nestlé, Nike, SJ Johnson, United Air Lines, Weber Grills and others.
Agencies, consultancy, research firms and suppliers will also be in attendance.
The first day of the conference on 12 March is exclusively for corporate/brand-side design and business leaders, while the second day, 13 March, is open to all client-side design and business leaders, as well as senior leaders in agency, consultancy, and supplier organisations (although the conference requests no sales or business development leaders, please).
Friends and members of the DBA receive a 10% discount off bookings made by 28 February. Use promo code DBA2025 when securing your place.
The conference is hosted by David Butler, Fred Richards and DBA Board Director, John Gleason.
Says Gleason, “This is not a traditional Design conference. We are not talking about the artifacts that we create, of how brilliant we all believe ourselves to be. We do plan to talk about the things that we often do not say out loud, so that we might, then, do something about them.”
More information about the conference programme and speakers can be found at thefutureof-conference.com and if you have any questions, contact John Gleason at john@GetABetterView.com
The Future Of… conference will take place at REVEL Motor Row, Chicago, IL 60616 USA on 12 and 13 March.